Air Vertical Velocity Distributions of Trade Cumulus and Stratocumulus Clouds from the ARM Mobile Facility CAP-MBL Campaign

The ARM mobile facility W-band ARM Cloud Radar (WACR) was deployed as part of the Cloud, Aerosol, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP-MBL) campaign on the north shore of Graciosa Island, Azores during the summers of 2009 and 2010. Vertical air velocities from cumulus and stratocumulus clouds over this location are retrieved using radar reflectivity and mean Doppler vertical velocity, employing the assumptions of Pinsky et al. (2010) that gravitational settling of hydrometeors is independent of vertical air motion. Cases of trade cumulus and stratocumulus clouds are identified from the CAP-MBL WACR dataset by examining hourly ceilometer-derived cloud base and cloud top heights, cloud top height variability, temporal duration of hydrometeor clusters from the WACR-derived hydrometeor mask, and precipitation type (Remillard et al. 2012). The structure of mean Doppler velocity as a function of reflectivity and cloud properties (e.g. cloud depth and distance below cloud top) are characterized for these two cloud types. Once the settling velocity has been subtracted, the distribution of air vertical velocities are examined. Vertical velocity histograms provide clues to test parameterizations of updrafts and downdrafts within clouds.